


Behavior Patterns

by GauntletSpirit



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Darkfic, F/M, Lots of that, and lots of emotional pain, grasper, nothing serious but mentions injuries and pain
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-14
Updated: 2016-04-14
Packaged: 2018-06-02 07:33:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 441
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6557485
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GauntletSpirit/pseuds/GauntletSpirit
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Even when corrupted, habits and behavior patterns remain in place.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Behavior Patterns

Her eyes were the same.

Greg stared up into the face of the beast before him. She had come tearing up the beach, and when he retreated into the van she had opened it as easily as a can of peaches, thrown one half to the side and spilled him - along with all of his possessions - across the driveway of the carwash.

Greg cradled his arm close to his body. It had made a sickening snapping sound as he’d been flung from the van and waves of pain were making him both dizzy and nauseous. He’d gone sheet-white under his red sunburn.

Despite this, he couldn’t look away from her eyes.   
  
Gaping jaws hung less than a foot away from his face, rivulets of saliva oozing and dripping down. Greg fought the mad urge to giggle through his pain. She had no esophagus. Gem sensibilities, even in this state.

She roared, and he was deafened to the point that he simply FELT the sound: a blast of hot air and pressure that made all of his bones vibrate.

“Jasper,” He gasped, fighting to catch his breath after that. She didn’t respond to her name, and his voice broke along with his heart. “Jasper.”

They had told him that the monsters were gems. Amethyst had even joked about it.

It had never sunk home to him, not truly, until now.

Tears welled in his eyes. He contrasted the warped form before him with her true face, smirking as she had just this morning when she waved goodbye.

_Be careful, Jasper!_

_As if anything on Earth could beat me. You worry too much._

They had JUST said goodbye this morning! Goodbye, see you later!

He hadn’t told her he loved her. He’d known she would scoff, or joke, or brush him off. He should have done it, regardless. He should have known better.

“Well,” Greg made a sound that was more sob than laugh, and winced when the motion jarred his arm. “You did say you would always come back to me.”

The beast snarled, eyes glowing.

“Just make it quick, please?”

A paw that must have been twice the size of a grizzly’s came swooping from outside of his field of vision, and Greg wasn’t in pain any longer.

Years later, a blink of an eye in Gem terms, Jasper returned to herself. Steven found the way. Jasper fought the urge to cry as she was reunited with old comrades: friends and even loved ones that she had thought long lost and beyond any hope. She mastered her emotions and managed to retain her dignity.

Until she asked Steven where Greg was.


End file.
